Now that we are on the right path...

A body was found on the outskirts of Tyger Pax. It wasn't hugely unusual to find a body lying somewhere that had been killed, however this was a most unusual killing. They'd heard tales about mechs and femmes alike being brutally killed, but not much more information came than that – as there was none. If not anything else, this particular one was grotesque and very fresh. The body had been torn apart, especially where the spark resides. Energon was everywhere and there were even signs of a struggle.

The lights above the alley weren't the greatest and left many shadows surrounding them. In fact, the most annoying thing about it was one of them kept flickering, which was a distraction they really didn't need. "Hey Hound?" a voice carried, "I think you need to come see this

Hound looked up toward said voice, "What is it?" For some reason he'd felt dread since he got the call to come, but wasn't sure why. If anything, this mission was like any other call.

"It's not good, that's for sure,"

"What are you talking about, youngling?"

"Well, you've heard the stories lately; the ones with the spark casings being ripped out?"

Hound stopped as a pang of dread hit him harder. Sure, he'd heard of them. Now he figured he knew why he felt dread. So far, the killings hadn't made it this far south to their territories… until now. He finally got closer, horror showing in his face at the condition of this mech. "What in the name of all that's holy is this?"

Sideswipe backed up from the grizzly scene, worry crossing his features, "I think it's here. It must be. I hadn't seen any myself, but I don't know what else could have done such damage,"

Hound leaned down, even though his mind was screaming at him to get away from this place, something odd stopped him. "Where's his spark system?" Was this a victim of the unknown killer or something else?

"I don't know," Sideswipe replied with a quick look around hoping he might spot it.

Hound frowned in thought then said, "As far as I know, cases say it's found with the victim. Maybe this was some Predacon's doing after all." It still wasn't good news, but in the face of what it could be, he was willing to accept it. The longer he stood, the more he felt something uneasy, and to be sure, he stood tall, ready to give orders. "Everyone, do a wide area search and find his spark chamber," he said to them then turned back to the body. He wanted to make sure he could rule out the thing that had been terrorizing other parts of Cybertron. "If it's found, at least we can run tests on it." His voice was more of a mumble as if he were trying to convince himself. The more he looked at the body, the more he could see evidence of cuts, or things not normally found on a dead mech.

Sideswipe knelt down to the body, examining it closer, "You think it might be an actual Predacon after all? Maybe it was a Decepticon trying to scare someone by imitating. I don't know why anyone would do such a thing, but I suppose I wouldn't put it past them."

"Eh, I don't think even Decepticons would go this far, though," Hound disagreed. "This is… is…" He didn't even have a word for what it was besides desecration.

A few minutes later, the system was found further down the alley by one of the search team. The one who picked it up took one look at it and dropped it, fear crossing his face. "The spark residue is gone,"

Hound heard something and looked up, seeing one of his men who seemed to be petrified from something. He left the body and headed for the other mech. As he got closer, he saw what had upset his associate. He wasn't sure if it was morbid interest or if he wanted to get to the bottom of this, maybe both, but either way, he picked up the spark chamber and system. All spark systems always have residual energy in the spark casing and closely running systems and this residue usually lasts for deca-cycles after the body is killed. This is a big indicator to how the mech or femme died. This spark system was not only torn out of its body, but it had no energy in it whatsoever – and it hadn't been but a few joors. It looked as if it had been sucked completely clean. How in the Pit does that happen? It was disgusting to him to think that someone actually drained their energy, but then why? It was useless anyway. He passed the thought that someone would consume the energy, as that kind of stuff didn't exist. The more Hound inspected this death, the more confused he was becoming. "Take all of it to Central and wait for me there. Have it checked out as soon as you can. I'm going to see if anyone noticed anything unusual."

"You got it," Sideswipe covered the body in a almost liquid silver sheet and wrapped it up. He called Ratchet ahead of time, so he knew to be ready and had the body taken to his medical labs for analysis. It had been decided that it was certainly the infamous unidentified killer.

Finding out who the mysterious mech was, was a top priority. It had been going on for quite some time with no answers. They had time frames, they had locations, and they had bodies that had been under microscope, but still, nothing could lead them anywhere except in circles. They couldn't entirely pin it on Megatron, which was their first thought, they couldn't pin it on wildlife and they couldn't pin it on anything else. Ratchet had spent quite a lot of time trying to figure this out, but he figured it was a dead end unless someone saw the killer, or someone got a body so fresh the killer would still have to be around.

Some still suspected it to be a Decepticon, but even that was pushing it, since the reports of this murderer showed they didn't care if they were Autobot or Decepticon they killed. No one had any solid proof since they usually found the victims too late to get any solid evidence. The only way they knew it had to be the same one, was the spark chambers had been torn from the body and there was no spark residue left.

It was kept as a secret from mainstream information because of the panic that would spread in the smaller cities. It was bad enough that there was a war going on, let alone some creature killing mechs and femmes alike.